Video: Selecting artwork beneath other objects

As we know inside of Illustrator, artwork has something called a stacking order. That means that as you draw vector graphics, objects appear on top of each other or beneath each other. As you can see up here with these flowers, one flower appears on top of this flower that appears beneath. When you try to make selections however, it can sometimes be difficult to select the object that appear beneath other objects because they're currently hidden from view. For example, let's focus on this one area over here. I'm going to zoom in on just this part right here and I'm also going to use my regular Selection tool to double-click on this group to isolate it.

In Illustrator CS5 Essential Training, author Mordy Golding explains the core concepts and techniques that apply to any workflow in Illustrator, whether designing for print, the web, or assets for other applications. This course includes a detailed explanation of the elements that make up vector graphics—paths, strokes, and fills—and shows how to use each of the Illustrator drawing tools. Also demonstrated are techniques for combining and cleaning up paths, organizing paths into groups and layers, text editing, working with color, effects, and much more. Exercise files accompany the course.

Selecting artwork beneath other objects

As we know inside of Illustrator, artwork has something called a stacking order.That means that as you draw vector graphics, objects appear on top of each otheror beneath each other.As you can see up here with these flowers, one flower appears on top of thisflower that appears beneath.When you try to make selections however, it can sometimes be difficult toselect the object that appear beneath other objects because they're currently hidden from view.For example, let's focus on this one area over here. I'm going to zoom in onjust this part right here and I'm also going to use my regular Selection tool todouble-click on this group to isolate it.

Now I'm inside of a group.If I were to click right over here, I would select this object that you can seebut if I want to select a background object I would need to click over here toselect it because if I click here, this object is in front of it.However, many times when you had very complex artwork there may not be room foryou to select artwork that appears beneath other objects.Quite often designers may toggle and go into the Outline mode. I'm pressingCommand+Y on my keyboard to do that so that you can see the actual paththemselves and you might select things in this way.

For example, click on the path and then when I go back into Outline mode, I nowsee that that object is selected.However there is a way now in Illustrator CS5 to actually select objectsthrough other objects.The way that you would do that is to first use your regular Selection tool toclick on the topmost object. Then hold down the Command key on your keyboard,if you are using Windows that would be the Ctrl key, and then click again.Notice that now that I clicked again, a little arrow appears next to my white arrow.That means I'm now in this drill down mode. It lets me select otherareas beneath this object that's currently selected.

If I now click again, you can see that the background object becomes selected.Now if I go ahead and I release the Command key, I'm back to my Selection tooland I've selected the backmost object, not the topmost object.If you have many overlapping objects, each time that you click with the Commandkey pressed down, you will systematically select the next object beneath it.It's just something to keep in mind as you're working inside of Illustrator.If you find that you're having a hard time selecting a piece of art, just hold downthe Command key while you're clicking to select other objects beneath it.

Q: Despite clicking the rectangle icon on the toolbar, as shown in the video, the other tool shapes are not accessible in Illustrator. The rectangle is usable, but the star, ellipse, etc. are not, and do not appear anywhere in the toolbar. What is causing this problem?

A: These tools are grouped together, so to access them, click and hold the mouse for a second until the other tools appear. If that isn't happening, reset the Illustrator preferences file. To do so, quit Illustrator and then relaunch the application while pressing and holding the Ctrl+Alt+Shift keys. Once the Illustrator splash screen appears, release the keys and that will reset the preferences file.

Q: In the video “What are vector graphics,” the author states that if he creates a 1 inch x 1 inch Photoshop file at 300ppi image, there are 300 pixels in that image. Is that correct?

A: This statement is by the author was not totally correct. If the resolution is 300ppi, it means that there are 300 pixels across one inch, both vertically and horizontally. That would mean you'd have 90,000 pixels in a 1 inch x 1 inch image at 300 ppi.

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